In general, a refrigerator is an apparatus that stores food and the like refrigerated or frozen as cold air, generated by a refrigeration cycle consisting of a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, an evaporator and the like, is circulated to lower an interior temperature of a food storage space.
Such a refrigerator generally includes a freezing compartment in which food or beverages are kept frozen and a refrigerating compartment in which food or beverages are kept at a low temperature.
Refrigerators may be classified into a top mount type refrigerator in which the freezing compartment is located above the refrigerating compartment, a bottom freezer type refrigerator in which the freezing compartment is located below the refrigerating compartment and a side by side type refrigerator in which the freezing compartment and the refrigerating compartment are left and right compartments divided by a partition.
These refrigerators implement cooling of a storage compartment, such as the freezing compartment or the refrigerating compartment, using cold air generated by heat exchange between air and refrigerant circulating through the refrigeration cycle. Accordingly, the interior of the storage compartment defined in the refrigerator is usually kept at a lower temperature than a temperature of the outside.
The freezing compartment and the refrigerating compartment are defined in a cabinet that forms an external appearance of the refrigerator and are selectively opened or closed by a freezing compartment door and a refrigerating compartment door respectively. The freezing compartment door and the refrigerating compartment door are pivotally rotatably mounted to the freezing compartment and the refrigerating compartment which have open front sides. Each door is provided with a gasket to hermetically seal the interior of the storage compartment.
In recent years, to satisfy various consumer demands and to prevent loss of cold air caused by frequent door opening/closing, technologies in which an auxiliary door is installed between the cabinet and the refrigerating compartment or freezing compartment door and a storage container is installed to the auxiliary door have been developed.
However, due to the fact that the freezing compartment or refrigerating compartment door and the auxiliary door are provided with gaskets respectively, loss of cold air through the two gaskets may be increased beyond that in the case in which a single gasket is provided without the auxiliary door.
In addition, dew formation due to a temperature difference between the interior and the exterior may occur at gasket contact regions, i.e. at a front surface of the cabinet and a front surface of the freezing compartment or refrigerating compartment door. To prevent this dew formation, it is necessary to mount respective heaters in the aforementioned two regions to heat the regions. In this case, two heaters for prevention of dew formation may be required, which may cause increased power consumption.
In addition, since the freezing compartment or refrigerating compartment door may be opened or closed independently of the auxiliary door, there is a need for a structure to stably fix the auxiliary door to the cabinet upon opening or closing of the refrigerating compartment or freezing compartment door.